I'm leaving from California to Prague. I have a ticket where i have to go to Paris to catch the connecting flight to prague. They only have 1.5 hours between flights. Since I've never been to de gaulle airport and do not speak french, i am concerned1.5 hours between flights is insufficent time to find the terminal AND go through immigration and/ or customs. Appreciate any advice. Thx
Assuming this is one through ticket, your luggage will be labelled through to Prague and you will not see it until then.
But, you will have to go through immigration for the Schengen Area in Paris, there will be no immigration in Prague.
1½ hours is tight, but if the airline thinks you can do it and has given you a through ticket, it is their responsibility if the first flight is late and you miss the second.
If you are booked through to Prague on the same airline, it should be OK. If they are different airlines, you may have a problem, especially if you land at Terminal 1 and take off from Terminal 2. Look at your reservations carefully, check the terminals for both the arrival and departure flights, and get back to us if you think there may be a problem.
In the meantime, you might want to get familiar with CDG's layout by looking at the Easy CDG website.
Thank you all. What does immigration in Paris entail? How long does it take? I heard there was some delay for travelers in europe. What is that about;will I be affected?
Check that the airline you are using has later flights that day to Prague that will act as a back up. It is not just immigration that might delay you. In bound flight delays happen as well. English is the universal 2nd language. Immigration officials have to deal with people from all over the world every day, not all of them speak French either, so English is the go-to.
Next week I know a woman here is flying SFO to Warsaw to start a two month trip and is transiting in Paris CDG for the connecting flight to Warsaw. It's with Air France, SFO to CDG, the only carrier she flies going to Europe.